On the occasion of World Humanitarian Day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation highlights Spain’s commitment to international humanitarian action, reflected in the nearly 115% increase in the humanitarian budget of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) since 2021, from €65.6 million to €140.2 million. This effort responds to an increasingly challenging global reality: according to the United Nations, more than 239 million people worldwide are currently in need of humanitarian assistance.
“At a time of growing demand for assistance and declining international funding, Spain maintains a firm commitment to humanitarian aid and is strengthening its capacity to respond to the world’s major humanitarian crises,” Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares recalls, while thanking all humanitarian personnel for their professionalism and courage. AECID supported 131 humanitarian interventions in 2025 and has already supported 72 so far in 2026, including responses to the recent earthquakes in Venezuela and Colombia.
Spain’s total humanitarian budget reached €225.6 million in 2025, 24% more than the previous year. Of this total, decentralised cooperation contributed €43.5 million, while AECID mobilised €140.2 million, of which €121.8 million corresponded to the Directorate for Humanitarian Action.
Stronger and better coordinated humanitarian action
Spanish humanitarian action has strengthened its response capacities and instruments over the past two years. Key milestones include the approval of AECID’s new Statute, which has strengthened the institution’s structure by upgrading the former Humanitarian Action Office to Directorate level and reinforcing its technical and operational capacities.
Furthermore, the humanitarian action agreement between AECID and decentralised cooperation now brings together 15 autonomous communities and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, fostering a more coordinated and coherent response across the public administrations that make up Spanish Cooperation.
In 2026, Spain also assumed the co-chairmanship of the Donor Advisory Group of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), together with the Spanish Red Cross, strengthening its presence and influence in one of the main strategic forums for international humanitarian action.
Presence in the main humanitarian crises
In 2025, 77.7% of the funds managed by AECID’s Directorate for Humanitarian Action, totalling €94.6 million, were concentrated in seven priority contexts, including Palestine, Ukraine, Lebanon, the Sahel and Afghanistan.
Most of this funding was channelled through the United Nations (54.9%), the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (18.9%) and other national and international humanitarian organisations (21.7%). This included €21 million allocated to the annual call for humanitarian action projects for Spanish organisations and €3 million mobilised through an extraordinary call for Palestine.
Rapid response to emergencies
AECID allocated €17.4 million to responding to humanitarian emergencies in 2025, channelled through the IFRC, emergency agreements with Spanish non-governmental organisations and direct responses. A total of €2.74 million was allocated to extraordinary interventions and emergency shipments.
Among the most notable direct interventions was the deployment of the START field hospital in Jamaica for 35 days, with 156 volunteer professionals, following Hurricane Melissa in November 2025. In 2026, these included the deployment of the AquaSTART water purification unit in response to flooding in Mozambique and the deployment of the START team as an EMT1 field hospital following the earthquakes in Venezuela.
Education, food security and gender equality
Spanish humanitarian action maintains a firm commitment to priority areas for a comprehensive and sustainable response, including education in emergencies, food security and gender equality. By way of example, in 2025 alone, AECID allocated close to €30 million to food security programmes, mainly through the World Food Programme (WFP), and continues to support the WFP humanitarian logistics base in Las Palmas, a strategic hub for operations in West Africa and the Sahel.
Through these efforts, Spain reaffirms its commitment to humanitarian action based on the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence, and to an increasingly effective and coordinated response adapted to the needs of populations affected by crises and conflicts around the world.
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